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Family

Khalidi is the son of Ahmad Samih Khalidi (1896–1951) and Anbara Salam (1897-1986), and the brother of historian Walid Khalidi. Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi is Tarif's first cousin. Khalidi's son, Muhammad Ali Khalidi, is a philosophy professor at York University. The Khalidi family has lived in Jerusalem since the eleventh century and is noted for a long line of judges and scholars.[2] Tarif's father was principal of the Government Arab College in Jerusalem from 1925 until 1948.[3] He also served as Deputy Director of Education under the British Mandate. [4] He was the author of several pioneering works on educational theory and on Palestinian history. Khalidi’s mother came from a prominent Beiruti political family.[5] She was a pioneer feminist, activist and writer; and the first woman in Greater Syria (Syria, Lebanon and Palestine) to publicly remove her veil in 1927.[6] She also translated several literary works into Arabic, including Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and published her memoirs in 1978.[7]

Khalidi and his family were "driven out of their home in April 1948 by advancing Zionist forces."[8] The family sought refuge in Beirut.[9]

Academic Career

In 1952, Khalidi attended Haileybury College in Hertford, England where he was on the classical side (Latin, Greek and Ancient History). He went on to University College, Oxford, where he received a B.A. in Modern History in 1960 and his Master’s degree three years later. Between 1960 and 1966, he was an instructor of Cultural Studies at the American University of Beirut.